


Bitter Orange

by bombcollar



Category: Bugsnax (Video Game)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, Implied/Referenced Emotional Abuse, Sort Of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 15:53:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29263086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bombcollar/pseuds/bombcollar
Summary: Wiggle decides Gramble deserves an apology.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 41





	Bitter Orange

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to write something that reflected my feelings on the devs revealing the characters' age ranges. I don't particularly feel good about this relationship anymore, however, I do believe that these two could still have something meaningful.
> 
> Light spoilers for the ends of the characters’ personal quests.

Wiggle pokes gingerly at the new shrimp-tail horns sticking out of either side of her head. For all the snax she’d eaten, she’d only ever felt that hollowness inside her grow larger. Everything she’d put herself through, that she’d put others through, all of it had wound up a big, fat zero.

Their journalist friend had returned to town by now. She’d told them she needed some time alone to think. That was partly true. The other part was that self-awareness was rushing back like the incoming tide. She looked ridiculous, her outsides finally reflecting her insides, and she couldn’t bear having anyone else see her right now.

As Wiggle sits, soaking her legs in one of the volcanic hot springs and watching the moon shimmer on the waves, she hears whimpering, quiet sobs coming from the other side of the dunes. It sounds like Gramble. Hot disgust boils in her stomach. Not at him, but at herself. Of all the people she’d mistreated, he’d surely gotten it worst of all.

Maybe she could do one thing right in all the weeks and months she’d spent on this island. Wiggle gets up, padding over to him. He’s seated on the edge of a rocky little outcropping, clutching his strabby beanie and using it to wipe at his eyes. He doesn’t look over to acknowledge her as she sits a few feet away from him, sniffling to himself.

“…Gramble?” She speaks up softly. “What happened?”

He doesn’t reply for a moment, wiping his face with the back of his paw and swallowing hard. “Th-” His breath catches in his throat, and he pauses to compose himself, squeezing his eyes shut as he presses his damp beanie to them. “…they left me,” he whimpers. He looks like a mess, eyes red from crying and sleeplessness, his fur all matted over his scrawny little body, once-vibrant pink dulled from trying to survive on sauce and spite alone. The cowardly part of her wants to leave this conversation for another day, one where he was in a better mood, but she knows she can’t listen to it. Not anymore.

“Your snax?”

Gramble nods. “The bigger ones I asked for, they broke my fence down and ran off, along with a buncha the others. I been so… so _stupid_ ,” he hisses, balling his fists in the knitted fabric. “Thinkin’ any of them were doin’ anything but toleratin’ me treatin’ them like pets. That them escapin’ all the time was an accident. I just…” His voice cracks, and he takes a shaky breath. “…it ain’t their fault, though. That’s just nature. Things don’t wanna be trapped like I had ‘em. All this time I coulda’ been helping everybody stay fed. Maybe none of this woulda happened.”

Wiggle scoots a little closer and pats his back, scratching between his shoulders gently. “It’s not your fault, dear. You did what you thought was right. I saw how much you loved them.”

“I did,” Gramble murmurs, sniffling again. “I did love ‘em.”

Guilt clenches her heart in its claws. For several long minutes, she doesn’t say anything else, her hand resting on his back, him crying quietly, too sad and too exhausted to keep it in any longer, the weight of so many wasted hours and unrequited emotions finally slipping from his shoulders.

Once he seemed to have calmed down, no longer quietly sobbing, just looking tearfully out onto the horizon, she speaks up. “Gramble, I’ve got something I need to tell you. I…” Deep breath. Admittedly, apologizing was not something Wiggle Wigglebottom had a lot of experience with. “I’ve been just terrible to you. And I can’t excuse myself just because the snax were messing with my head. I knew exactly what I was doing. I saw how young you were, how lonely, and I thought if I played my cards right, I could get anything I wanted from you.”

Gramble watches her from the corner of his eye, his expression impassive. “I know.”

Wiggle blinks at him. “You do?”

“Well… y’weren’t exactly subtle about it. Ain’t my first rodeo.” He gives a joyless little snort of laughter. “I thought maybe you’d come around eventually, maybe you’d like me for me, but I wasn’t holdin’ out any hope…”

“Gramble, listen.” She gently interrupts him. “I may have started out that way, but with how much time we’ve spent together, I couldn’t go on like I was… I care for you dearly. I do. But I’m old enough to be your mother.” She smiles wryly to herself. “We can’t be together like that. But, listen-”

Wiggle takes his damp paw between hers, giving it a little squeeze. “You are one of the kindest, sweetest, most caring people I’ve ever met. You have so much love to give, and I swear on my platinum record, that once we escape this grump-forsaken rock, I will do everything in my power to help you find someone who deserves you.”

She watches he looks down at their joined paws and slowly tugs his free, then slips off the rocks, turning away. It was such terrible luck that she’d finally worked up the courage to talk to him about this on the same day he’d learned the true nature of his beloved snax, but maybe that was for the better. Better to rip the band-aid off all at once instead of opening that wound anew with more bad news later.

“…okay,” he croaks, still staring numbly at his feet. “I’m gonna… head back to town now. Seeya, Wiggle.”

“Take care, Gramble.” Wiggle lifts a hand to wave goodbye to him, which he understandably doesn’t return. As he walks off, she rests her chin in her paw, digging a furrow in the sand with a toe. Of course, he would need some time to process it all. Losing both his snax and being rejected was a lot for anybody to deal with in a single day, but Gramble was resilient. If he could make it through all the hardships he’d faced in his life with so much love still in his heart, she was sure he’d recover from this, too. He wasn’t in this alone anymore, and one day he’d find someone who’d love him back the way he deserved to be loved. Someone who’d help raise that family he so desperately wanted. He’d be a great dad.

As for her, she’d be okay. Maybe she’d never reach that high again. Maybe she wasn’t meant to. Maybe it was all some kind of cosmic punishment for her hubris. Wiggle scoffs to herself. As if she was really that important in the grand scheme of things. It was time to stop chasing dragons.

While she sits pensively, a Razzby totters up to her, bumping against her foot. Wiggle shoos it away. For the first time in a great while, she didn’t feel hungry.


End file.
